About Lil Wayne
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. , known professionally as Lil Wayne, is an American rapper. He is often regarded as one of the most influential hip hop artists of his generation, as well as one of the greatest rappers of all time. Born and raised in New Orleans, he was discovered by hometown rapper Birdman in 1993 and signed with his record label, Cash Money Records, at age eleven. He emerged as the label's flagship artist until his departure in June 2018.
He was first placed in a duo with Cash Money labelmate B.G. in 1994—known collectively as the B.G.'z—and they released an album, True Story, in July of that year, although Carter appeared on only three its tracks. Carter and B.G. then formed the Southern hip-hop group Hot Boys with labelmates Juvenile and Turk in 1997; they released their debut album, Get It How U Live! in October of that year. The Hot Boys gained mainstream success following the release of their second album Guerrilla Warfare , and their appearance on B.G.'s single, "Bling Bling". The group briefly disbanded after the album due to each member parting ways with the label, although one further album—Let 'Em Burn —was released.
Carter's debut studio album, Tha Block Is Hot quickly achieved commercial success and served as his breakthrough as a solo act, followed by Lights Out and 500 Degreez . His fourth and fifth albums, Tha Carter and Tha Carter II , both debuted within the top five of the Billboard 200 and received critical acclaim. His sixth album, Tha Carter III , yielded the pinnacle of Wayne's career, with first-week sales of over one million units domestically. Furthermore, it won the Best Rap Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards and was supported by his first Billboard Hot 100-number one single "Lollipop" , the top-ten singles "A Milli" and "Got Money" , and the top-20 single "Mrs. Officer" .
Carter's seventh studio album, Rebirth , experimented with rap rock and was released in February of that year to generally negative critical response. A month later in March, he began serving an 8-month jail sentence for criminal possession of a weapon stemming from an incident in July 2007. His eighth album, I Am Not a Human Being , was released during his incarceration, while his ninth album, Tha Carter IV , followed months after his release from prison. Despite mixed reviews, Tha Carter IV sold 964,000 units in its first-week domestically. His twelfth studio album, Tha Carter V —preceded by I Am Not a Human Being II and Free Weezy Album —was released following long-term delays and label disputes, and was met with 480,000 in first-week sales. His thirteenth album, Funeral , became his fifth non-consecutive number one album, and his fourteenth, Tha Carter VI, is scheduled for release in June 2025.
Carter has sold over 120 million records worldwide, including over 25 million albums and 95 million digital tracks in the United States, making him one of the world's best-selling music artists. He has won five Grammy Awards, eleven BET Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, two MTV Video Music Awards and eight NAACP Image Awards. On September 27, 2012, he became the first male artist to surpass Elvis Presley with the most entries on the Billboard Hot 100, with 109 songs. Carter founded the record label Young Money Entertainment in 2005, which has signed artists including Drake, Tyga and Nicki Minaj.
Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. was born on September 27, 1982, and spent his first few years in the impoverished Hollygrove neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, Louisiana's 17th Ward. His mother, a cook, gave birth to him when she was 19 years old. His parents divorced when he was two and his father permanently abandoned the family. In a 2009 interview, CBS News anchor Katie Couric asked the rapper why he used the name Wayne instead of his given name. Carter replied, "I’ll tell you why I dropped the D right here on TV. I dropped the D because I am a junior. My father, he’s livin', and he is not in my life and he’s never been in my life. So I don't wanna be Dwayne. I’d rather be Wayne.” Couric asked if his father knew that, and Carter, chuckling, said, “He knows it now.” Carter has said that he considers his deceased stepfather Reginald "Rabbit" McDonald to be his real father. Carter has a tattoo dedicated to McDonald.
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